Local officials worry about impact for rail disasters on places like Kingston

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer hopes DOT-111 cars, like the ones seen here on East Chester Bypass, will either be “phased out, strengthened or required to carry only nonflammable stuff like corn oil or canola oil.”
Tony Adamis — Daily Freeman

KINGSTON >> > Standing by the CSX Corp. railroad tracks near Clarendon Avenue last summer, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer called on the federal government to require out-of-date railroad cars carrying hazardous materials be retrofitted, taken out of service or restricted to carrying nonflammable liquids.

Behind him, dozens of those rail cars — CSX’s older DOT-111 tankers — loomed on a long stretch of track.

At the time, Schumer said the cars had become a “known threat” to public safety in Kingston and other communities through which they pass.

While acknowledging that accidents of the DOT-111 cars are rare, Schumer said that when an accident happens, as it did on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, the results are catastrophic.

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In the Canadian case, 50 people were killed and more than 30 buildings — half the downtown area — were destroyed when a freight train carrying crude oil derailed, causing a fire and a series of explosions.

“Safety experts in transportation will tell you that these cars are flawed and actually prone to tears and spills in the event of derailment,” Schumer said at the press conference last August. “We ought to begin on a plan for safety now. That is all we are asking.”

Before the year was out, on Dec. 30, 2013, a fireball erupted at the site of a DOT-111 train derailment near the North Dakota city of Casselton.

Earlier this month, Schumer renewed his call for action.

“The recent explosion in North Dakota, combined with the increased number of trains carrying oil and other hazardous material through New York and down the Hudson, are cause for serious concern,” Schumer said. “If one of these cars were to fail, it could result in destructive explosions in our local communities, or oil flooding into the Hudson River or Port of New York, sullying our waterways and gumming up our economy. We need to take these dangerous cars off the rails before they derail themselves.”

Schumer has said the DOT-111 cars, which often carry crude oil or ethanol, “need to be phased out, strengthened or required to carry only nonflammable stuff like corn oil or canola oil.”

He suggested the changes be carried out “over a period of years.”

In a statement released last week, a CSX official said the freight company is cooperating.

“CSX puts the highest priority on the safety of the communities in which we operate, our employees, customers and their products,” said the statement issued by company spokesman Robert Sullivan. “The U.S. Department of Transportation is examining the safety of moving oil by rail, including rail safety, tank car standards and crude oil assessments, and we are engaged in that effort.”

Sullivan said the company is aware of Schumer’s concerns.

“As we analyze rail safety in moving oil, we understand the public concern and our efforts are focused intently on enhancing the safety of oil transportation and restoring the public’s confidence in our ability to do so,” Sullivan said.”We already comply with federal routing guidelines for the transportation of the most hazardous materials, and we will evaluate whether those protocols could be applied to oil shipments.

Sullivan explained that the DOT-111 tank cars that are handled by CSX are owned or leased by the customers and subject to inspection before and during transit.

“The DOT-111 tank cars operating today are designed to meet current federal and regulatory requirements as well as industry standards,” Sullivan said. “The federal government establishes the type of tank cars in which hazardous materials can be transported.”

The Association of American Railroads, Sullivan said, has “recommended that these cars be held to improved standards.

“CSX supports this position, as well as the AAR’s support of the DOT’s heightened vigilance and attention to the proper labeling of oil moving in tank cars,” Sullivan said.

At an industry meeting with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, Sullivan said the company made some important progress toward identifying what the railroads and energy producers together can do to enhance safety.

“Our discussions were focused on what else can be done in areas such as processes and technology to assure public confidence and make the supply chain ever safer,” Sullivan added.

In interviews with local emergency management officials and community leaders, Schumer’s attempt to force new rules from the U.S. Department of Transportation is drawing support.

Arthur Snyder, director of Ulster County’s Department of Emergency Management, said that while the economic benefit of transporting oil and ethanol weighs heavy, there is no room for error.

“There is an increased focus on the whole railway industry now,” Snyder said. “I think everyone knows ... how important transportation is to the economy, but nothing trumps public safety.”

Snyder said that as CSX train traffic increases through Ulster County, the risks to public safety are only magnified.

“I think the pressure is on, and for the good of public safety, the railroads will have to implement some of the changes that are being suggested,” he said.

The impact of a derailment in Ulster County would depend on where it occurred, Snyder said.

“We have to realize that the train traffic through the city of Kingston (is) in close proximity to residences, the high school, so there is tremendous exposure there,” Snyder said. In other areas, like Highland, there “could easily be a situation where you could have a train in the Hudson River.

“Each area presents its own unique challenges,” Snyder said.

Snyder said, too, that motorists have a responsibility to avoid explosive collisions with the rail cars.

“Respect rail traffic,” Snyder advised. “When the gate goes down, that means stop. When you are driving, you have to take responsibility.”

In his most recent press release, Schumer noted findings from the National Transportation Safety Board, which he said cited the design of the DOT-111 model tank car as a major factor in a 2009 Cherry Valley, Ill., freight rail accident and hazardous materials release. The board recommended either a redesign or replacement of DOT-111 model cars, he said.

According to Schumer, the following specific retrofit recommendations were made by the National Transportation Safety Board:

• Require that existing general service tank cars authorized for transportation of ethanol and crude oil have enhanced tank head and shell puncture resistance systems and top fittings protection that exceed existing design requirements for DOT-111 tank cars.

• Require all bottom outlet valves used on existing non-pressure tank cars (DOT-111 cars are not pressurized) are designed to remain closed during accidents in which the valve and operating handle are subjected to impact forces.

• Require that all existing tank cars authorized for transportation of hazardous materials have center sill or draft sill attachment designs that conform to the revised American Association of Railroads’ design requirements adopted as a result of safety recommendation.

Schumer said freight lines running from Western New York, eastward through Albany and south through New Jersey, potentially have hundreds of DOT-111 cars carrying crude oil or ethanol each day along their tracks; still more freight enters from Canada at Rouses Point, N.Y., and heads south via CPRail to the Port of Albany, where it is loaded onto barges and ships and sent down the Hudson River.

Reports suggest that rail transportation of oil has increased over the past few years, given the development of new fields and, in part, due to the Keystone XL pipeline approval delays.

About 400,000 carloads of crude oil traveled by rail last year to the nation’s refineries, up from 9,500 in 2008, according to a report in the New York Times gleaned from the Association of American Railroads.

In January, Gov. Andrew Cuomo stepped up the state’s pressure.

He directed state agencies to strengthen the state’s oversight of petroleum shipments by rail, citing the devastating accidents in Quebec and North Dakota and the expansion of crude oil shipping through the Port of Albany.

Cuomo issued an executive order directing the Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies to evaluate the state’s spill prevention, response and inspection programs involving rail and ship transport of petroleum products.

The agencies are to report recommendations to Cuomo by April 30.

Subsequently, Cuomo won praise for his position from Scenic Hudson, an environmental group based in Poughkeepsie.

The group’s president, Ned Sullivan, lauded the governor in a press release issued on Jan. 30. Sullivan also said that local emergency teams are not prepared to deal with a massive train derailment.

“The Hudson River and Hudson Valley, its people and the natural resources we treasure are at risk every day to the potentially devastating impacts of a crude oil spill from the rail and oil tankers that are carrying highly volatile crude oil through our communities,” Sullivan said. “Both federal and state agencies and our city and town emergency response departments are underprepared to respond adequately to a spill into the Hudson or an accident in one of our communities.”

“Governor Cuomo’s comprehensive executive order is just the action needed at this time to mobilize state agencies to evaluate these risks and to recommend actions that will strengthen our readiness to respond,” Sullivan added.

All this has drawn concern from pollution clean-up experts, like Kingston Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Gleason, who heads the city’s Hazardous Materials Unit.

Gleason said there is no doubt that a derailment of a DOT-111 car in Kingston would be a catastrophe.

“You would have big problems,” Gleason said. “What ends up happening is that the (DOT-111) cars are having valve problems ... and it doesn’t have enough protection when there is impact and there are explosions. Most of the cars are fairly old and need replacement.”

Gleason said that if an accident took place in Kingston, there would be a certain focus by rescue workers.

“Evacuations would be a primary goal of what we would try to do,” Gleason said. “That would be determined to be a high priority.”

Gleason said his unit would likely be involved in initial cleanup, but it is likely a specific company would be employed to do the heavy lifting. Gleason’s unit is called to hazardous waste spills to contain them. If major work is needed, the spiller of the materials would hire that company and the city would bill the offender for the cost of its work.

Town of Ulster Supervisor James Quigley said that the idea of making hazardous material transportation safer should apply to train traffic as it does in other modes.

Quigley said “double-hulled” barges are required for transport along the Hudson River and more requirements were made of trucks carrying hazardous materials on the Thruway.

Why not then, he asked, should the same be put to the railroad companies?

About the Author

Paul Kirby is a reporter for the Freeman, covering Kingston politics. He has been at the Freeman since August 1996. Reach the author at pkirby@freemanonline.com
or follow Paul on Twitter: @PaulatFreeman.